The South African gang economy leaks billions of rands from the country every year, cripples the state, and leaves communities reeling from poverty inflicted by its operators. Yet, its destructive prosperity is allowed to continue, according to dr Don Pinnock, a criminologist and investigative journalist.
Drug sales, guns and armaments, poaching, prostitution, protection rackets, vehicle theft, housebreaking, and alcohol. These form the foundation of South Africa’s intricately woven gang economy, according to dr Don Pinnock, a criminologist, investigative journalist, and author of Gang Town, among other things.
“A gang economy is a part of, but certainly not all of the criminal economies in South Africa,” says Pinnock in email correspondence with MatieMedia. The wider criminal economy encompasses grand (and often political) corruption, white-collar crime, the national and transnational movement of illicit goods, “and much more”, he adds.
In 2020, crime cost South Africa about R2,2 billion or 13% of its gross domestic product, according to a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The IEP is an international organisation that measures the economic cost of crime, according to their website.
Crime is “bleeding” the country economically – partly due to an ineffective police force, a judicial system crippled by former President Jacob Zuma, and a political ineptitude in dealing with it, according to Pinnock. “There’s no game plan and criminals know it,” he says.
While crime decreased significantly over the past two years, it can mainly be attributed to the lockdown levels the country entered into since March last year. This is according to Police Minister, Bheki Cele, during the release of the quarter two crime statistics for 2020 and 2021.
From October 2019 to December 2020, the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition decreased by 18,5%, housebreaking by 17,2%, vehicle theft by 14,2%, and drug-related crime by 9,6%. This is according to a report by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
South Africa saw a quarter-on-quarter decline in some of the crimes that contribute to the gang economy. SOURCE: saps.gov.za. GRAPH: Candice Jantjies
Not only does fear of gangs make cohesion difficult in communities where they thrive. It also deters investment, according to Pinnock. “Imagine Manenberg with a café economy with people on the streets in the evening eating out, sitting on pavements chatting? Kids playing. Street music. Impossible,” he says.
The gang-related operations within the gang economy bleed the economy and impoverishes already vulnerable communities, according to dr Don Pinnock, a criminologist and investigative journalist. PHOTO: Candice Jantjies
Moving parts
The prevailing narrative is that communities are afraid of the consequences of “snitching” on gangs running illicit operations. Both because of vengeance from the gangs, and because they don’t trust the police not to snitch right back to the gangs on who gave the information, according to Pinnock.
While this rings true, several moving parts need to be considered as to why communities don’t report gangs. Firstly, there is also a sense that the police are useless and that there is no point in going to them, according to Pinnock. “The percentage of convictions against arrests [in South Africa] is around 5%, so they’re not wrong,” he says.
Furthermore, some sections of communities also benefit from gang money, Pinnock continues.
The first step gang leaders take is winning over the backing of their communities by feeding and clothing them, helping them financially, and making them believe that they are uplifting and protecting them. This is according to Wange*, who formerly transported illicit goods, such as drugs and guns, for a gang in Cape Town.
“They will always operate in places where people struggle to make ends meet,” says Wange. “Our coloured areas are rather average and below-average people where it concerns money. So, he helps them financially. They borrow money from him. So, they believe he puts bread on their table,” he explains about how gang leaders reel communities in.
Gang leaders also involve their communities in their operations, whereby they pay neighbours to store illicit goods for them as soon as they get a tip-off that the police are about to crack down on one of the premises they trade from, according to Wange.
“And for them to spend that money […] – it costs them nothing,” says John*, a former member of an anti-gang unit in the SAPS. “Because on a bad day, those guys have already made R15 000.”
These form part of the reasons why communities don’t “worry” about reporting gangs to the police, and often defend them against the police, according to John.
“Now the police come and raid them. And then a whole fight ensues, and the community attacks the police,” he explains to MatieMedia.
Across the board
To protect and expand their “business”, it is in the interest of gangs to corrupt and weaken all levels of government, the judiciary, and the police. This is according to a report Pinnock co-wrote for the Western Cape Department of Community Safety.
After multiple threats to his life and two petrol bomb attacks on his home by a gang he was investigating, John decided to retire from the police force entirely.
“We knew who it was – the police knew who it was,” he tells MatieMedia. “My colleagues knew who it was. Nothing was done about it there. So, I no longer saw the point of having to stay in the police.”
His work in the unit entailed cracking down on gangs’ criminal operations, raiding the premises from which they operated, following up on them, and based on whatever evidence they found with whoever, they would arrest them.
Most of the time they arrested the “operators” selling drugs – the “mules”. However, they never got to the source of the drugs. This was mainly because they had colleagues working with the gangs. “In such a way that we never got to the distributors,” he says.
Wange likens gang operations to a game of chess where the leader is the “king”. But the king is also involved in an “underworld” that transcends the traditional playing field, according to Wange. “That’s where the king sits in meetings with other leaders to discuss business,” he explains. “But. There are more people involved, higher up than them.”
These would be the “connect” – the people in government who smuggle drugs, guns, sex workers and much more into the country for the gangs, according to Wange. “[Gangs] have got the government under their asses. They’ve got the police under their asses. They’ve got judges, lawyers under their asses. They’ve got ministers working with them because [these] are the people importing and exporting the goods,” he claims.
This is all to ensure that the illegal drugs, guns, and sex workers make their way into the country undetected, according to Wange. Even when the ships and planes transporting these commodities are investigated, nothing is ever found, he says. This is because gangs receive tip-offs from the government officials involved in the importing and exporting sectors, he claims.
Sometimes a decoy carrying a small shipment of drugs, for example, would be let through to distract the investigators from a much bigger shipment, according to Wange and John. “They’ll give you a small shipment of 50 000 Mandrax pills. And then while you’re busy with that guy, the big shipment passes you,” explains John. “And that R80 000 or R100 000’s worth of drugs you find is nothing compared to what just passed you.”
According to Lionel*, a supervisor for a Cape Town gang, the government also use gangsters “to do their dirty work”. Supervisors collect money made from drug sales, and then report back to the gang leader, he explains. With most cash-in-transit robberies, for example, “it’s government officials who know exactly when that truck leaves, which route it’s taking, and things like that”, he claims. “All inside jobs. And they just use a skollie to do their dirty work.”
Drugs are one of the biggest commodities that keep South Africa’s gang economy in operation, according to dr Don Pinnock, a criminologist and investigative journalist. PHOTO: Candice Jantjies
John and Wange share Pinnock’s argument that the gang economy is immeasurable and to an extent inseparable from the country’s economy. This is because gangs use registered businesses and organisations, such as churches, universities, taxi organisations and real estate, to launder their money, according to Wange and John.
“Their dirty money runs through the books of those registered businesses as well,” says Wange. “So, it forms part of the country’s economy.”
*Due to the nature of the topic discussed in this article, aliases were used for Wange, John and Lionel.